How much can I change a NY cheesecakes recipe?
My sister recently started making NY cheesecakes (Baked) according to an online recipe she found. I assisted her in doing so, and every time I mentioned any kind of change we could make in the recipe she refused to even think about that stating "you should be loyal to the recipe" and "don't make comments about things you don't know".
So I'm wondering: how much can I change a recipe for a different result?
Can I swap "petit beurre" biscuits with "digestive" biscuits?
Can I use any other kind of starch instead of corn starch?
In general, is it wrong to make drastic changes in a recipe?
P.S.: I am the kind of a person that tries different things to find the right way to do things, more of a trial and error kind but with the recent spike in the prices in my country and the economy we have I can't afford trying and failing no more, so I have to ask about everything beforehand, even the simplest things.
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Maybe not an answer.
I'd try to collect as much NY Cheesecake recipes as possible and see what are the common parts and what variations there are between them.
In one of your example, recipes I've looked at are quite liberal in what can be used as crust.
For example, this recipe suggests "...graham cracker, digestive biscuits, or vanilla wafer crumbs..."
in general is it wrong to make drastic changes in a recipe?
I would say yes, drastic change will change the recipe; especially, IMO, in baked goods like cakes and cheesecakes and stuff like that.
There is a general understanding that a NY cheesecake should be; and if you change the recipe and it results in something different, then it not a NY cheesecake anymore.
Many beginners in the kitchen get advice along the lines of “you can play around with cooking, but baking recipes shouldn’t be changed or you risk failure” or something similar. This is only partially true.
Whenever you consider substitutions, you need to consider what the purpose of the given ingredient is. This will help in finding the answer to the “can I substitute” question. A few examples:
Corn starch thickens - potato starch will do the same, plain flour will usually work, but may affect the mouthfeel and flavor a bit.
Substituting one kind of dry biscuit for another will be no problem texture-wise, as the crumbs are bound together with the butter, but of course each kind will give a different flavor - and if you use a recipe that adds sugar to the crumbs you want to compensate the difference in sweetness between the chosen biscuits. Still, crumb crusts are quite forgiving.
Dairy is tricky - especially if it’s the main ingredient. Using a low-fat softer type instead of the rather firm “bricks” of cream cheese in US recipes can backfire badly. Here the different water content must be compensated, which means you need to adjust other binding ingredients. And the flavor will be different.
If in doubt, it’s always a good idea to check lots of recipes for the same dish. The common denominators should become clear as well as the range of variations.
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